Reversing-gearing.



A. L. HERMAN.

BEVERSING GEARING.

APPLICATION mun OCT. 26, 1910.

1,018,972. Patented Feb. 27, 1912.

IA/m (M gr I ATTORNEYS COLUMBIA PLANOGIAPK 20., WASHINGTON, n c.

ALBERT L. HERMAN, OF PROSPECR, OREGON.

REVERSING-GEARING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

. Application filed October 26, 1910.

Serial No. 589,152.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT L. HERMAN,

a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Prosper, in the countyof Coos and State of Oregon, have invented a new and ImprovedReversing-Gearing, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

My invention relates to reversing gearing for general use, and moreparticularly to reversing gears suitable for use with internalcombustion engines.

More particularly stated, my invention comprehends a revoluble shaft anda countershaft to be driven by the same in either direction, accordingto the direction of ro-' tation of the firstmentioned revoluble shaft,the countershaft, however, remaining idle for a moment whenever thefirst-mentioned shaft is reversed in its direction of rotation and onlytaking up the rotation after the first-mentioned revoluble shaft hasturned half a revolution. That is to say, I connect the two shaftstogether by a sluggish gearing so arranged that under normal conditionsone of the shafts can drive the other bodily, yet when the driving'shaftis stopped in its rotation and reversed in its direction, its new orreversed motion is not communicated to the other shaft until half arevolution of the driving shaft is made.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar characters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a central section showing an internal combustion engineequipped with my improved reversing gear; Fig. 2 is a detail showing 1nplan the reversing gear; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 2,looking in the direction of the arrow, and showing one of the clutchmembers forming a part of the reversing gearing; Fig. 4 is a section onthe line 4-4'of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrow, andshowing another one of the clutch members; Fig. 5 is a section on theline 5-5 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrow and showingone of the cams for operating the valve gear of the engine; and Fig. 6is a section on the line 66 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of thearrow, and showing another cam for operating the valve gearing of theengine.

At 7 is an internal combustion engine, which happens in this instance tobe of the four-cycle type. The main shaft of the enof the axis of'theshaft 8.

because of its immediate control over vashaft gine is shown at 8 and isprovided with cranks 9, 10, these parts being of the usual or anydesired construction.

At 11 is a fly Wheel mounted rigidly upon the main shaft. A worm gear 12is also mounted rigidly upon the main shaft and meshes with another wormgear 13, the latter being mounted rigidly upon a shaft 14 and extendingacross the general direction The shaft 14,

rious other parts hereinafter mentioned, I designate for convenience asa driving Mounted rigidly upon the shaft 14 is a bevel gear 15 whichmeshes with two other bevel gears 16, 17. These two bevel gears areprovided respectively with body portions 18, 19 integral with them,these body portions in turn being provided with pawl pockets 20, 21.

At 22, 23 are clutch members, each having a general annular form, andassociated with these two clutch members are cotter pins 25 for holdingthem in position, Each clutch member 22 has a pawl 26 extending throughit.

At 28, 29 are leaf springs mounted respectively upon the clutch members22, 23 and engaging the pawls 26, 27. The tendency of each leaf spring28, 29 is to force the adjacent pawl 26 or 27 into the corre spondingpocket 21 or 20, provided the said pocket is brought into alin'ementwith the pawl.

At 30 is a revoluble shaft upon which are fixedly mounted a number ofcams .31, 32, 33. This shaft, because of its office, I designate as thecam shaft. The bevel gears 16, 17 are loose relatively to this shaft andbecause of their meshing with the bevel gear 15, they always turn inopposite directions, and for this purpose are driven positively by aidof the shaft 14. The pawls 27 are located upon opposite sides of the camshaft'r30 and are'so arranged that they Patented Feb. 27, 1912. V

clutch members 19, 23 rigidly together so that the cam shaft 30 is nowturned in a direction contrary to that in which it traveled at first.The operation of my device is as follows: It is a well known fact thatin an engine, if the cam shaft, or other shaft controlling the valvegearing, be turned half a revolution, other parts of the engineremaining stationary, the direction of rotation of the engine is therebyreversed. Conversely, it is true that if, by any means, the cam shaft becaused to remain stationary while the main shaft of the engine makeshalf a revolution and the cam shaft is then started up and drivenpositively by the engine, the direction of rotation of theengine isreversed. What I seek through my invention to do, therefore, is tonormally drive the cam shaft 30 so long as the rota-3 tion of the engineis in a particular direction; yet to maintain the shaft 30 stationaryfor a period representing half a revolution of the main shaft of theengine whenever the direction of rotation of said main shaft isreversed, the reversal of the cam mechanism controllable by the camshaft being thus effected in like manner as the cam mechanism might beaffected by the shifting of a link motion.

Referring now to the drawing, and particularly to Fig. 2, it will benoted that so long as the shaft 14 turns in one directionsay to theright, according to Fig. 2the clutch member 18 is locked rigidly to theclutch member 22 by aid of the pawls 26, the end of this pawl being, ofcourse,

in the deepest part of the pocket 20 and the cam shaft 30 being thusdriven positively by the shaft 14, and consequently having a positiverelation to the rotation of the main shaft of the engine.

Suppose, now, that the operator, either by manipulating the timer or inany other appropriate manner, causes such an explosion to take place inthe engine as will reverse the direction of rotation of the main shaft8. Ordinarily, in an engine such an explosion as this would not have anytendency to reverse the engine, for the reason that any rotary movementof the main shaft would merely cause a corresponding movement of thevalve gearing so that the engine would remain undisturbed as regards itsdirection of rotation. With my device, however, the situation isdifferent. When the main shaft 8, after having been turned in onedirection, is reversed and turned in the opposite direction, it ofcourse causes the shaft 14 to reverse and turn in a direction oppositeto that in which it has been traveling. The bevel gears 16, 17 beingdriven positively by the bevel gear 15 v with which they mesh, are alsothereby re versed in their direction of travel. This being true, itfollows that the pawl 26 is pushed to the right according to Fig. 1,this movement being accomplished by the inclined bottom of the pocket 20moving obliquely against the rounded point of the pawl, the leaf spring18 yielding slightly. This leaves the pawl 26 pressing against theclutchmember 18 but not extending into the pocket 20. Hence, the bevelgear 16 is no longer rigid relatively to the shaft 80 and is for themoment free to turn relatively to the same. The rotation of the bevelgear 17, in a direction opposite to that in which ithas been turning,soon car-T ries the clutch member 19 into such position that the pawl 27enters the pocket 21 and lodges against the steep wall thereof, thusforming a positive look as between the clutch members 19, 23. hen thisoccurs,- -i

the bevel gear 17.begins to rotate positively, being driven directly bythe clutch member 23 which, like the clutch member 22, always turnspositively with the shaft 30 and in the samedirection in which theshaft'ihappens at a particular moment to be turning. The shaft 30 isthus driven positively from the shaft 14, but with these qualifications,that after these two shafts have been thus turned in one direction andthe? shaft 14 is stopped and reversed, the shaft 30 does not immediatelybegin to turn in the opposite direction, but waits for a periodrepresenting one-half a revolution.

The net result, therefore, is that as be tween the driving shaft 14 andthe cam shaft 30 the gearing as a whole is in a sense sluggish. theextent of the sluggishness being equal to a lost motion equal toprecisely one-half a revolution of the cam shaft 30. That is to say, ifthe shaft 14 has been turning the shaft 30 in a particular direction andis reversed, the shaft 30'is picked up, by the sluggish gearing, after tthe reverse rotation has continued fora period representing half arevolution of the shaft 30, 'this being in this instance equal to half arevolution of the driving shaft 14.

I do not limit myself to the precise arrangement of the parts shown.Neither do" I limit myself to any particular materials but of which thevarious parts may be made, the scope of my invention being commensuratewith my claims.

Having thus described my invention, I

claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

'1. In a reversing gearing, the combination of a driving shaft, a gearmember mounted rigidly thereupon, a driven shaft, id

by said driven shaft anddisposed upon opposite sides thereof, said pawlsbeing so positioned relatively to said surfaces to be engaged by themthat at a particular moment one pawl only can engage a correspondingsurface.

2. In a reversing gear, the combination of a driving shaft, a bevel gearcarried thereby and rigid relatively thereto, a driven shaft, a pair ofbevel gears mounted loosely upon the latter and free to turn in:opposite directions, said last-mentioned bevel gears meshing with saidfirst-mentioned bevel gear, clutch members carried by said bevel gearsupon said driven shaft and provided with pawl pockets, other clutchmembers mounted rigidly upon said driven shaft and provided with pawlsfor fitting into said pockets, said pawls and said pawl pockets being sopositioned relatively to each other that at a particular moment only onepawl can enter a corresponding pawl pocket, the other pawl being idle.'In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALBERT L. HERMAN. Witnesses:

FRED J. BLUNDELL, THOMAS W. PANTER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

